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Agricultural Equipment from Heritage Tractor for Missouri Farmers

On the Road with Machinery Pete and Heritage Tractor in Missouri

Machinery Pete takes us to Missouri to speak with farmers and Heritage Tractor about the unprecedented rainfall over the summer that led to one of the best harvests in recent years. The yield farmers are experiencing is causing many to reinvest in their farms and buy new and used farm equipment.

Crop Yields Increasing Equipment Sales

Kyle Stutzman of Garden City, Missouri said that his corn yields have been above average at 150-200 bushels per acre. Since commodity prices are so low, he said it can be difficult to pull a profit, but the unexpected yields have made it easier.

A local equipment dealer, Heritage Tractor, explained that due to the yields they’ve already had customers upgrade to larger combines because their smaller ones didn’t have the capacity to keep up with harvesting. There has also been growing interest in grain carts and planters that have larger capacities. Heritage Tractor also said that they’re used combine inventory is down and that the sales and promotions they’ve run have helped increase the amount of agricultural equipment sold.

Machinery Pete discovered that September was the strongest month for equipment sales with interest being in tractors, which continue to spike in price as demand grows. At one auction, a 2013 model Quadtrac 550 sold for $223,000, which is the highest he had seen in 21 months. Another auction in Michigan sold a John Deere 9530 for $175,000.

Machinery Pete also added that search traffic for 200 tractors and up in September was up 25% compared to 2016 September search traffic. However, he says that the market tends to strengthen towards the end of the year because people are simply more optimistic about the year ahead.

Used or New Agricultural Equipment

Farmers in Missouri like Kyle Stutzman who have large fleets of agricultural equipment often buy used or trade in older models for brand new ones provided they have a multi-year warranty. For some farmers, investing in newer equipment with better technology is worth it. Many new tractors and combines come equipped with hybrid technology that allows the user to see what’s going on beneath them and use data from yield maps to plan for the coming year. This information is incredibly valuable for farmers.

Missouri farmers are looking forward to 2018 and hope to see similar crop yields to what they experienced this year.